THE first Baltic Alpha Conference has been held near Riga, Latvia and attended by over 250 delegates.

Church leaders came from several countries including 70 from Lithuania and 35 from Estonia. A team of volunteers from a Swiss church made the journey to Latvia to help support the conference and serve the delegates.

An opening address was given by the Lutheran Archbishop Janis Vanags (inset) who said, ‘The Alpha course is known worldwide as one of most successful ways to introduce people to the basics of Christian faith, as well as to give them motivation to get involved in parish life.

‘To my mind, that is why the Alpha course deserves the highest attention, since the exodus of parishioners after confirmation is one of most painful problems of out Church.”

Around 40 per cent of the delegates who attended the conference were completely new to Alpha.